


til death do us part

by callieincali



Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: Accidental Marriage, Angst, Arguing, F/F, Fluff, Tumblr Prompt, it's angsty but it gets cute i swear, julia is preggers and sad, kady loves julia and is also sad, read this if you want to see wickoff endgame one day, wickoff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-06
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-10-05 15:13:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17327363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/callieincali/pseuds/callieincali
Summary: accidental marriage auor, a spell gone wrong binds julia and kady together





	til death do us part

**Author's Note:**

> ok so i wrote this literal ages ago and absolutely hated it but read it again today, adjusted some things and now i think it’s okay?? 
> 
> from the prompt: ‘Accidentally married is my favorite trope and I'd love to see it as a wickoff fic if you're down!’ from bisexual-meme-thief on tumblr. i hope i did u justice even tho this isn’t your typical accidental marriage au. sorry it took so damn long
> 
> this takes place in early s2 right after julia finds out she’s pregnant so this wickoff relationship is still fresh okay, keep that in mind.

There was something about watching Julia flip through dusty spell books— one hand buried in her unkempt hair, the other tapping the pen in her grasp on the part of her lip that jutted out like it always did when she was concentrating— that made Kady forget momentarily about the reason they were there in the first place.

They were researching locater spells, trying to find whoever banished Reynard the last time he wrecked havoc on the world, but Kady could have convinced herself they were back with the rest of the Free Traders, skimming through the spellbinder with a blissful ignorance that felt impossibly intangible after all they’d been through. And Kady wasn’t one to sugarcoat reality— to live in the what if’s and the silver linings— but watching Julia then, made her want to pretend they still lived in the ‘before’.

It took a few minutes before Julia noticed the staring and glanced up to meet Kady’s eyes. She didn’t smile or acknowledge the probably stupid-looking grin on Kady’s face, but Kady swore she saw the girl’s features soften for just a moment before she returned her gaze to the books.

“Anything?” Kady picked at her fingernails for the sake of giving herself something to do.

“Everything I’m seeing says we need to go to the place she banished him from,” Julia started, scratching at her scalp with a huff. “Go break the mirror in my bathroom.”

“Break— what?”

“The mirror. We need a shard of a reflective surface to enchant.”

“Oh, um, alright.” Kady stood from the couch, stretching the tightness from her back and found her way to the bathroom. She stared at her reflection and clenched and unclenched her fist a few times, prompting herself to imagine the glass as the face of the trickster god they were searching for. The image of Julia stepping in front of the table Kady had been crouched under on the day of the attack blinked through her thoughts just long enough to heat her cheeks. She couldn’t determine whether the anger that came was towards Reynard or her own shameful cowardice but she landed a blow on the mirror just the same, shielding her face with her free hand as shards exploded around her.

Kady found a large piece and caught sight of herself in it, exacerbating the irritation gnawing at her stomach. She let the glass dangle at her side and returned to where Julia resided on the couch.

“Did you _punch_ it?” Julia asked.

“Maybe.” Kady wiped the freshly dotting blood of her knuckles on her pants and reclaimed her seat.

Julia shook her head, turning a page of the book she was reading towards Kady. “Takes two people to cast it.”

Kady read over it halfheartedly (distracted slightly by the way Julia couldn’t seem to draw her eyes from where they worriedly scanned over Kady’s bleeding hand) and practiced the hand movements until they were fluid before nodding her confirmation. “Okay, ready.”

The spell was seemingly Slavic, some language Kady had spent less time than she would have liked to admit learning, but she pushed her way through it, ending the spell with one hand against Julia’s, and the other on one edge of the glass.

She watched the mirror expectantly, waiting for the typical, faint magic glow or warmth, but neither came, and the only change she felt was a growing tension in her chest, like a hand pressing on her ribcage from the inside. She cleared her throat just as Julia brought a hand to her own chest, swallowing hard and staring at Kady from behind furrowed brows.

“Do you feel—?”

“Yeah, what the fuck did we just do?” Kady hurriedly pulled the book to her lap, reading over it once, twice, three times for some indication of their mistake. She shook her head, baffled when the search came up empty. “Do you feel okay?” Kady let a hand fall on Julia’s crossed legs, tilting her head for a better view into the nearly emotionless brown eyes across from her. Kady had grown used to seeing the emptiness in Julia’s stare, but that didn’t stop the pit it formed in her stomach. The shorter girl sighed out a breath as if Kady’s hand on her leg had been enough to remedy the spell’s strange side effect. And when Kady focused on her own reaction to the spell, she noticed the tension had lightened inside her, too.

“I’m fine. Did we do it wrong?” Kady took a moment to steady her breathing— a moment long enough for Julia to grow impatient waiting for an answer. “I did exactly what the spell said. What did you do wrong?” She asked, a hint of accusation in her tone. Kady held up her hands in defense, her chest swelling in faint pain at the removal of her hand from Julia’s leg.

“Nothing, I— I’m not that fluent in Slavic languages,” she explained, almost feeling guilty as Julia blew a worried breath from her mouth, flaring her cheeks and letting her eyes fall shut for a moment.

“Like I needed anything else to make me wanna puke.” Julia massaged a circle into the area of her chest exposed by the v-shaped dip of her shirt with the heel of her hand, pushing from the couch in the direction of the kitchen. With each step she took, Kady felt the cold ache behind her ribs growing, and by the time the shorter girl reached the kitchen sink and leaned over it, Kady thought she might lose her lunch, too.

“Fuck,” she managed past the tightening sensation stealing her breath. She figured Julia probably would have said the same, had she not taken to dry heaving with a white-knuckled grip on the counter— a sound Kady had unfortunately grown used in the past weeks, but never accustomed enough to fight the urge to be by her side.

She made it to Julia in mere seconds, immediately bringing a hand to her back and rubbing back and forth until the gagging stopped and left the room to fill with her uneven breathing and Kady’s questioning of her wellbeing.

Julia’s watery eyes found Kady, a knowing look of ‘oh-shit’ in them. Kady chewed at her cheek, the same knowledge meeting her. Because somehow, standing against the counter with an arm around Julia’s shoulder, she no longer felt the painful tension above her stomach.

 

* * *

 

“So, we must have cast some kind of binding spell.”

They were back on the couch, Julia’s head leaned onto Kady’s chest, a new book of spells open for the both of them to see. It was a position that nearly remedied the tugging in their chests altogether (though the late hour and their shared exhaustion played a major role in the choice of how they lay).

“Or some kind of heart-attack-mimicking-curse.” Kady let a hand find the hair resting on Julia’s shoulder and twirled it around her fingers, far too tired to actually read the words on the current page.

“All of these spells seem too— childish. I don’t even know if they really exist.” Julia mouthed the sentences of a passage as she read over it, finally shaking her head with a scoff. “I mean, ‘to break the curse, the two participants reveal something unknown to one another’? That can’t be real.”

“It does sound a little true-love’s-kiss-ish,” Kady muttered, but shifted slightly with an exasperated sigh of distaste. “It’s worth a shot, though, I guess. You first?” She held off the thought threatening to enter her mind for as long as she could before the memory of crouching in the grass, hands bound by rope in front of her played vividly behind her eyes. She could still picture the betrayal in Penny’s eyes as the ropes untangled from her wrists; the remorse that came with the memory still felt as real as it had on the day it occurred.

Julia flicked her eyes towards Kady and narrowed them slightly; there was a question in her gaze, one that never made it past her lips but one Kady could tell was there. “Okay,” she drew out the word skeptically, “what do you want to know?”

“I don’t know, does it say what the secret has to be about?”

“No, that’s literally all it says.” She tapped the passage in the book for emphasis.

“So, then tell me something I don’t know.” Kady shifted further, enough so that she could turn and face Julia directly, pulling her legs up and crossing them under her. She watched Julia expectantly.

The shorter girl mirrored her stance, playing with the rings on her fingers and biting at her lip contemplatively. “My middle name is Ogden.”

“It _is_?” Kady stifled a laugh, raising her eyebrows in a way that was probably not as polite as it could have been. Julia’s mouth spread into a smile even as she tried to contain it and put up an offended front, her hand reaching out and shoving Kady’s leg playfully.

“Yes, asshole. Your turn.”

Kady wracked her brain— or, more accurately, weeded out the immediate thoughts she wasn’t ready to confess at the moment— searching for some useless tidbit to share, and shaking her head when one finally surfaced. “Okay, well, I know how to play piano. You didn’t know that, right?”

Julia’s eyes narrowed again just before she rolled them. “I tell you ‘Ogden’ and you tell me you can play an instrument. That’s just unfair.”

Kady’s jaw fell open in fabricated shock. “What? I— there’s nothing interesting to tell.” She lied, calling to mind at least three examples in the span of time it took her to say it.

Julia hummed, not anywhere near convinced. “Nothing you’re _willing_ to tell, anyway.”

The living room fell silent after that, Kady fighting the redness rising in her cheeks, Julia fighting the urge to push for more.

The curly-haired girl cleared her throat. “Did it work?”

Julia scooted to the far end of the couch, wincing at the added pressure and immediately lessening the distance. “No,” she scrubbed at her eyes defeatedly with the heels of her hands; Kady took to shutting the book with a loud thump, tired of seeing the spells within it.

“We’ll figure it out in the morning, Jules.” It was past midnight (possibly by a few hours, Kady had lost track), and they still had at least two other books to read through— a task Kady had no interest in completing without a few hours of sleep or an excessive amount of caffeine.

Kady didn’t even bother suggesting the idea of still sleeping on the couch for obvious reasons, but neither of the two questioned the unspoken decision as Kady climbed under the covers of Julia’s queen sized bed and lay down next to her, close enough for her to hear the rhythmic pattern of Julia’s breathing as it slowed and grew shallow.

And something about the changed setting instilled a security in Kady she couldn’t bring herself to trust fully— something about lying next to Julia, knowing the shorter girl was safe and as well as one could be after what she’d been through, made Kady’s problems feel oddly unattached and distant in a way that almost prompted her to remedy it and move elsewhere out of fear. She couldn’t let herself drop her guard again. Not after what happened with Penny on the Brakebills roof. Not after what happened with Marina and her mother while she was at Brakebills South. Not after what happened with the Free Traders in the room just beyond Julia’s bedroom walls.

But refusing to dwell on the newfound sense, Kady let her eyes fall shut and, for the first time since she fled Julia’s apartment months ago, Kady fell asleep— unaided by heroin or magic methadone— with a sense of comfort she no longer thought to be tangible.

 

* * *

 

“So, you can play the piano _and_ cook?”

Kady couldn’t hold back the smile that grew on her face at the sound of Julia’s voice, muffled slightly by the pancakes she was eating.

“I can cook _pancakes_. That may or may not be where my talents end.” She poured a generous helping of batter into the pan, attempting to ignore the tug inside her as she reached across the counter for another handful of chocolate chips.

Neither of the two were ready to dive back into the seemingly endless spell research ahead of them, and neither mentioned the strange feeling inside their chests as they started the morning, though it remained and ached just as strongly as the night before.

But they ate chocolate chip pancakes and brewed coffee (decaf for Julia, much to her own dismay), anyway, neither in a rush to break their false ignorance.

“They’re delicious,” Julia mumbled through another mouthful. Kady flipped the last pancake of the batch onto a plate once it was the perfect golden-brown and turned off the stove, bringing her own stack to the bar and taking a seat beside Julia.

“Yeah, well, just don’t start craving any five-star meals and we won’t have a problem.”

Julia licked the syrup from her fingers and wiped them on a napkin, reaching for a dusty green book and earning a disgruntled groan from Kady. She moved to grab the book in an attempt to spend just one meal without the confusing science of magic and its dangerous effects looming above them, but Julia swatted her hand away and shot her a glare that spoke every reason why they had no time to spare for normal things like a quiet breakfast.

Both their plates were empty, syrup beginning to dry around the edges, by the time Julia finally made some progress on the search.

“Here’s one,” she began, running her fingers below the words as she skimmed over them. “It’s about needing to overcome unresolved conflict.” Her tone fell slightly from the near cheerfulness it had held throughout the morning, residing, now somewhere between neutrality and solemnity. “The participants are bound to one another until an underlying conflict is resolved.”

Kady dropped the fork she had absentmindedly been sliding through a pool of syrup, her muscles tensing in an instinctive way she had grown all too used to. This time, the memory of the moments just before Kady and Penny left for Brakebills South forced their way through her mind before she could even attempt to stop them.

“I’m falling in love with you,” was all it had taken for Penny’s ropes to grow loose and unravel into the grass. Kady probably had the glint of sincerity in his eyes memorized by now, which was probably to blame for why it was never far from her thoughts.

But what she remembered with even more clarity was the way his expression shattered at her own confession— how he didn’t have to say anything for her to know that the last year of their relationship was slipping through her fingers faster than the rope was untangling itself, and there was nothing she could do to save it.

Kady shook the scene from her head, bringing her attention back to Julia and hardening her gaze. “It’s probably as fake as the last one.”

She refused to entertain the idea of ruining another relationship because of another stupid binding spell she had no intent to participate in in the first place.

And again, there was an looming question Julia never asked, but she tilted her head and furrowed her brows in a way that spoke it for her. Why the sudden change in attitude, or something along those lines, Kady assumed.

“ _Worth a shot, though,_ right?” Julia pushed, using Kady’s own words against her. Kady cursed her lack of skepticism towards the previous attempt but forced a steadying sigh, deciding Julia deserved at least a vague explanation.

“I— I’ve done something similar. At Brakebills. Didn’t end well.”

Julia’s expression softened just enough for Kady to recognize the sympathy behind it, but she pursed her lips, meeting Kady’s gaze from behind raised eyebrows. “Worse than having to be within ten feet of someone at all times?”

Kady broke the stare they were holding, unable to look at Julia and fathom the idea of not having her in her life. Being tied to someone was better than losing them completely. And Kady had plenty of experience with the latter. She mentally debated the logic and shrugged a response, feeling to rushed to side with one option wholeheartedly.

They made it back to Julia’s room— back to the queen sized bed that still made Kady uneasy— and faced each other on the mattress, wracking their brains for conflict between them. Or at least, Kady assumed Julia to be wracking her brain; Kady just stared ahead, pretending to do the same.

“Did she suffer?” Kady remembered asking, the first day the Free Traders united under the roof of Julia’s apartment. The news of her mother dying came at Brakebills South, too— Mayakovsky, stating the devastating information nonchalantly, as if he was noting how much snow they had seen in the past weeks. There may have been some sympathy there, but Kady couldn’t bring herself to find it.

Truly, she didn’t need to ask Julia the question because the explanation of ‘a spell gone wrong’ pretty much answered it for her, but she asked anyway.

Julia’s eyes had welled with tears in reply, and offered the only confirmation Kady needed.

She didn’t like to dwell on the memory, because she didn’t like being mad at Julia. Not anymore, at least. The shorter girl had enough anger towards herself anyway, Kady didn’t think she should add to it.

But the thought still burned like a hot dagger to the gut whenever it chose to resurface. She clenched her fists in her lap, refusing to speak about it, afraid her mouth would betray her and say too much.

“Well, I think the obvious one,“ Julia finally said, her voice trailing and dropping off, punctuated by Kady scoffing. She probably wouldn’t have, had it not been for the twinge of annoyance setting her on edge.

“Obvious?” Kady questioned, unsure if it was hurt or defense on her tongue. Julia’s face twisted in confusion towards the abrupt tension.

“Well, the day of the,” Julia cleared her throat instead of naming the event. Kady mentally filled in the blank. “You left. And you didn’t come back.”

Kady’s throat tightened against the lump growing inside it and she recognized the emotion as resentment. Not towards Julia, but instead towards her own choices and where they landed her. “And I apologized for that. I— what else do you want me to do?” There was an edge to her voice, and she knew it was because deep down she felt the need to defend herself, justify her way out of her decisions instead of facing their consequences.

“You explained yourself but—“ Julia’s voice trailed, leaving the statement open for Kady to finish. Kady shook her head at the implication, laughing shortly.

“This is so stupid. You know I’m sorry. I didn’t think I had to say the words to make it true.”

Julia didn’t respond, instead picking at her fingers, her gaze aimed at the blanket they sat on.

“God, _I’m sorry._ I’m sorry I ran and hid instead of coming back for you. But you said it yourself. There was nothing I could have done then.” Something about the apology filled Kady’s stomach with restiveness, her cheeks beginning to heat at the vulnerability of the situation. An uncomfortable silence hung between them, just long enough to bring Kady’s anger to a steady simmer. Somewhere in her brain was a voice telling her to end the conversation— to figuratively (because literally wasn’t a choice) walk away before things got too heated— but that voice was distant and muffled and she easily pushed it aside.

“Why didn’t you come back?” Julia pushed—careful, tactical even— breaking the silence and bringing a hardened stare to meet Kady’s. The curly-haired girl threw up her hands in exasperation, slapping them down on the mattress with a quiet thump.

“Okay, you really want to know why?” Kady could feel her control slipping, could practically feel the harsh words crawling up her throat— the exact ones she would probably regret as soon as they left her mouth. Julia held out a hand in a way that motioned for Kady to continue, and it was enough for her to stop resisting the words on the tip of her tongue; she clenched her fists until her fingernails left imprints in her palms and opened her mouth. “Because you’ve been the common denominator. All the messed up shit I’ve been through in the last year all tied back to you and your reckless search for— for _power_.” Julia’s expression fell, not out of sympathy, but out of hurt, and she tilted her head, pouting out her bottom lip slightly in a way that begged for further explanation.

So, stupidly, Kady continued.

“My mom is _dead_ because you didn’t want to stop searching for more magic.” Julia opened her mouth to protest but Kady cut her off. “It’s never been enough for you. I told you working with Marina was a bad idea— that you should be thankful Quentin was alive after what you put him through and learn from your mistakes. But you kept going. You looked for more and got my mom killed, just like when you—“ Kady finally came to her senses, realizing what she was about to say and pressing her tongue firmly between her teeth before she could. She scanned Julia’s face up and down, noting the welling tears at the corners of her eyes.

And there it was, like a wave breaking on the shore, the regret came and brought guilt with it, finding a residence in her stomach and twisting her insides until she felt sick.

“Say it.” Julia growled, the shakiness of her voice almost sending tears to Kady’s eyes. She fought them off and bit down harder. There was a tightness in her chest, not unlike the one from the spell, but this pressure sped her heart rate and made her dizzy— claustrophobic was the word that came to mind. She knew the fight-or-flight sensation well, and in that moment, it was at full throttle. “Just like when I what?”

“Stop, Julia, I didn’t— you know I don’t blame you for that.”

“Then why’d you say it?” Kady didn’t have an adequate explanation other than anger, and that only strengthened the pounding in her chest until it echoed in her ears. She uncrossed her legs, ready to leave the room at any cost, but stopped for a moment when Julia quirked a testing brow. “You can’t run away this time.” It was meant to be insulting but Kady only took it as a challenge, ignoring the wince that twisted Julia’s features as she pushed from the bed. She only made it a step or so before she gave in to the tightness behind her ribs and slid to the floor, her back against the side of the bed frame.

She heard Julia scoff, but the embarrassment towards her own position never came, lost under the mess of emotions Kady was left to sift through. She heard (and felt, in the form of another sharp tug above her stomach) Julia leave the bed next, but she didn’t go any farther, inclining Kady to infer she had taken a similar position, just on the opposite side of the frame.

The pain in her chest was stronger than usual but neither her or Julia commented on the added pressure out of some unspoken, mutual decision to not say anymore, probably with the fear they’d dig themselves deeper than they already were. Kady dwelled on the sensation, let it consume her thoughts because it was easier than focusing on the situation she was currently in.

The voice that had so long been muffled at the back of her thoughts came through clear as day and reminded Kady why she had been apprehensive in the first place— why she didn’t talk about her feelings to avoid saying the wrong things and getting herself into trouble.

Silence reigned for a while— Kady guessed half-an-hour— before she could feel her muscles relaxing, the redness fading from her vision, her breathing growing steady despite the pounding that refused to leave the area behind her ribs. She gathered her thoughts and fought past the urge to not expose herself any further, thankful Julia was on the opposite side of the bed and couldn’t see the way her cheeks burned.

“I don’t actually blame you for Reynard.” There was a sigh from across the room, one of relief as if the tension was slowly fading from the air.

“I know.”

“And I don’t blame you for my mom’s death either.” Kady pulled a leg up to her chest, her mind still feeling clogged and cluttered. “You just— you were there, and when I think about it I—“

“I get it, Kady. You don’t have to explain yourself.” The edge in Julia’s voice was nearly gone, leaving behind the tone Kady had grown used to in the weeks she had been living with Julia— a tone with a softness and understanding that never failed to instill Kady with a comfortable warmth. “I don’t blame you for running. It was a shit-show here. Probably best you didn’t stick around to see it.”

Kady sighed too, at that, minutely shaking her head; Julia had every right to resent her after everything she’d suffered through, and the fact that she didn’t only added to Kady’s residual guilt.

“You shouldn’t have had to go through it alone.” Quiet followed, and the promise of the strain dissipating completely didn’t seem far from reach, but Kady still felt a gnawing inside her and she swallowed her pride once again for the sake of making things as close to right as possible.

“I’m sorry I was a coward.” Her voice cracked as she said it, her cheeks burning hotter. A laugh sounded from the opposite side of the bed, not out of mockery or malice, but genuine laughter, and something about it made Kady’s lips curve slightly above all confusion towards the reaction.

“I’m sorry I was a _power-hungry_ hedgewitch.” Kady could hear her smiling through the words, an obvious sarcasm about them. Her own quiet laughter followed, lifting a weight from her shoulders with it.

“Shut up,” she muttered back, the playful manner lacing its way back into the conversation. Another silence rented the space, but this time it was a comfortable quiet, and Kady could feel her heart rate slowing, the gray clouds of their argument parting to finally reveal the sun behind them.

“We’re gonna be stuck like this forever,” Julia said, her voice growing closer as she climbed back onto the mattress.

“Either that or we’ll end up killing each other trying to break this spell,” Kady added, just as Julia slid down to sit beside her. Her head came to rest on Kady’s shoulder, and with the pressure gone, both girls breathed through a sigh of relief.

 

* * *

 

 

It was two days later when Kady found another lead in their search to break the spell binding them.

The two had meticulously read every spell book on hand with little else to report other than a few spells with similar remedies to the previous two they’d attempted, but they mutually overlooked them, deeming it unworthy for history to repeat itself.

(“No more fairytale shit,” had been Julia’s choice of justification. Kady gladly obliged.)

Julia was never one to give up, but Kady could see her drive deteriorating at the discouraging realization they had nothing left to read through. She picked up where the shorter girl had begun to slack, taking to the only resource they had left to sift through without consulting a group of hedge witches (which neither had any interest in doing): the internet.

“Hey, Jules.” She watched from her peripheral as Julia’s gaze panned from the television to her concentrated expression. Kady read the words on the screen twice more before she scoffed in disbelief, a smile laced with an even mix of shock and triumph spreading across her face. “I think I just found the spell we did on accident.” She skimmed it again, this time with Julia’s wide-eyed stare locked on her, and laughed—actually laughed— as the words began to make sense in her head. “This has to be it, Jules. It’s even Slavic like the spell we messed up.”

Julia didn’t move. She only skeptically lowered her eyebrows until wrinkles appeared between her eyes; a look that told Kady to keep talking.

“You’re not gonna believe this.” Kady shook her head again, slightly enjoying how the drawn out nature of her explanation had begun to make Julia shift impatiently.

“What is it?”

Kady performed one more read through, just to ensure her sleep-deprived mind wasn’t playing tricks on her, before she spoke. “It’s a _marriage_ spell.” Julia squinted confusedly at that, which was warranted considering the ambiguity of the response. “Used typically by two unmarried partners in order to test, or simulate how likely their marriage is to last. The binding effects of the spell require the participants to be together at all times. Distance elicits a painful sensation in the chest and worsens as more is added.” Kady read directly from the screen. The confusion only strengthened in Julia’s expression, but a hint of a grin curved the corners of her mouth. “Fucking Google magic.”

Julia shook her head, her smile growing wide as she scoffed similarly in disbelief. “Almost worse than the ones from the books.”

“But,” Kady turned towards Julia finally. “There’s a counterspell.” Julia’s eyes lit up at the mention, immediately clicking the TV off and leaning onto Kady’s shoulder for a better view of the screen. “One that doesn’t involve either of us admitting a secret or some shit.”

“Good,” Julia mumbled through a sigh, mouthing the words of the spell as she scanned over them.

Less than an hour later, the supplies necessary for the counterspell accumulated on Julia’s living room floor, which had grown void of furniture (couches and chairs pushed to the walls to expose the hardwood floor underneath). Julia had watched from the kitchen as Kady cleared the area, wary and somewhat standoffish for a reason that grew clear when Kady pulled back the rug to reveal red-brown stains scattered throughout the room.

The last time they’d found themselves in this position, it ended with Kady under an end table, three of their closest friends bleeding out on the floor, and Julia worse off, in a way.

Kady found the shorter girl and paused in her movements, knowing the lack of commotion would draw Julia’s attention.

“You okay?” Kady asked when brown eyes lifted from where they were trained on the floor and met hers. She tossed a box of matches from hand to hand for the sake of something to do. Julia nodded meekly and pushed from where her back rested against the bar, making her way to Kady’s side and lessening the tension inside their chests.

“It’s just—“

“It won’t end like that this time,” was all Kady could think to say. Julia only nodded again, tugging at the jewelry on her hands and staying close as Kady finished setting up the space.

The air felt heavy as they kneeled on the floor in front of a metal bowl, various incenses and crystals set up strategically around them. They checked and double-checked their work, looking between the setup and Julia’s laptop, which bathed the area in an eery blue light, doing little to ease any worry looming around like a dark cloud.

It was ten minutes of careful corrections before the ritual began and a fire of distinctly magical origins burned from seemingly no where except the metal of the bowl and its inflammable contents, flames flickering with hints of reds and blues.

Kady and Julia exchanged looks in silence, nodding once each before Kady lifted a knife from the floor and brought it to her palm. She sliced a short line and let a drop of red fall into the fire, which sizzled and smoked in response.

“Alright, your turn.” Kady held out the blade.

Julia took the knife into her hand, weighing it in her palm with a questioning look. Kady watched in anticipation, mirroring Julia’s expression when the shorter girl remained still. “Jules?”

“We’re not breaking the bond because you hate being tied to me, right?” The words overlapped Kady’s, spilling from Julia’s lip breathlessly, like a dam breaking under excess pressure. Kady cocked her head, attempting to read the intent of the question.

“Julia, no, I—“ she stopped, waiting for Julia to meet her gaze. When the brown irises met hers, she continued. “We’re breaking it because I’d like to go to the bathroom without you coming in with me,” Kady laughed, recalling how unorthodox their routine had become in the past few days.

Julia cracked a smile at that, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear and brushing against her pink-tinted cheeks in the process. “A little privacy would be nice.” She closed her fist around the handle of the knife.

“You’ve been an amazing wife,” Kady tacked on, just for the added humor, though somewhere deep in her stomach warmed as she said it. Julia’s smile widened until a short laugh escaped past it. “Our marriage would _definitely_ last.”

“You’ve been alright, too, I guess.”

“ _Alright?_ That’s it?”

Julia shrugged nonchalantly, but the glint in her eyes showed the true playful nature of the remark.

“Any man or woman would kill to have me as a wife, just so you know.” Kady feigned shock, placing her not-bloody hand on her chest as if she was offended.

“You do make pretty good pancakes.” The air between them fell silent as Julia brought the blade to her opposite hand, touching it to her palm with just enough force to make an indentation.

Kady was reaching out before her mind could catch up with the action, her fingers finding Julia’s wrist and tugging it just far enough for the silver of the knife to lose contact. Kady pushed to her knees and leaned forward, noting the steady heat of the small flame just below her.

“While we’re still married,” she started but let her voice trail until silence stole it. Kady slid a hand behind loose brown curls and pulled Julia close, waiting for her small nod to tell Kady it was okay before allowing their lips to meet and finish the sentence for her. The kiss was slow and soft, never deepening— because Kady knew Julia wasn’t ready for something bordering intimacy— but when Kady pulled away, she still felt breathless and warm all over.

Julia was smiling when their eyes met again, and Kady couldn’t stop the way her own lips tugged upwards. “Can’t believe you waited until the day we’re getting divorced to do that.”

Their quiet laughter filled the gap in conversation that followed, and this time when Julia brought the knife to her hand it left a crimson line in its wake. She let a drop fall into the flame and watched as it sizzled to nothingness and dulled the fire to mere embers with it. A lightness filled Kady’s chest and by the way Julia drew in a sudden deep breath, she must have felt it, too.

“We did it,” Kady stated the obvious, somehow still struggling to steady her breathing. Julia pushed from her knees and took a few testing steps back, grinning wide when the familiar ache never surfaced.

“We really did it!” And Kady expected her to enjoy the lack of boundaries— to run off to the kitchen or something of the likeness without the necessity of dragging Kady with her— but the shorter girl walked closer instead, holding out her arms and wrapping them around Kady’s midsection. Kady was taken aback for a moment before she returned the gesture, resting her cheek on the side of Julia’s head, relaxing into the hug.

And though Kady knew that since the spell was broken, it would be back to business as usual from that point forward— back to the stress and unpredictability of locating a trickster god and banishing him back to wherever the hell he came from— Kady let those problems fade into nothing more than an afterthought, enjoying the ignorance of pretending their greatest problem was accidentally binding themselves to one another, and that resolving it meant life was back to the way it should be.

She was back to ‘before’, and she let herself believe nothing could change that.

**Author's Note:**

> i know there’s like 5 of you left on the planet but if you’re reading this i’d love some kudos and comments to let me know that all 5 of the wickoff stans liked this and still want more in the future 
> 
> i’m @bestbltches on twitter and you can feel free to send me prompts there, though obviously by record shows i suck at getting to them. 
> 
> okay bye i love u all, wickoff isn’t dead yet bc i’m never gonna let it die.


End file.
